Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - BONUS EPISODE: Inside the Series: Oxygen's ‘Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers’

Episode Date: September 27, 2018

It’s the true story of a teen girl, a cheerleader in Mississippi who is burned alive, and the story of the man accused of the crime. Nancy Grace speaks with Buzzfeed News reporter Katie Baker to look at the Jessica Chambers case and Katie’s reporting, which laid the groundwork for the limited series event. Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers airs Saturdays at 7/6 Central on Oxygen, the new network for crime. Podcast produced in partnership with Oxygen. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A picture of Jessica in my mind is blue eyes, always smiling, the biggest dimples, the littlest body, and probably her little sign thrown up, which is, I love you. I love you. Jessica was a blonde-haired, cotton-top little girl. Jessica's smile would just light up a room when she came in.

Jessica loved to cheer at the football games. would just light up a room when she came in. Jessica loved to cheer at the football games. She was a flyer. They'd throw her up in the air. Oh God, I was so afraid they was gonna drop her. Jessica was full of life. Jessica was suffering as a mule. Jessica was just a joy. At one time, she wanted to be a teacher. At one time, she wanted to be a book writer. And the major thing she always said was she wanted to be an RN. You are hearing a description of a beautiful young teen cheerleader, Jessica Chambers. Jessica burned alive.

That's her family speaking out lovingly, describing what Jessica was like, what she wanted to be when she grew up. Her mom, Lisa, her aunt, Sherry, her father, Ben Chambers. We're hearing their voices. The closest thing left to Jessica. Joining me right now is BuzzFeed reporter Katie Baker. Katie, thank you so much for being with us. I am really looking forward to everything as it unfolds on Oxygen's new series, Unspeakable Crime, The Killing of Jessica Chambers. Now, it premiered September 15th,

7-6 Central, but there are new episodes every Saturday on Oxygen, the new network for crime. Katie, I want to talk about several things regarding Jessica. First of all, how was Jessica Chambers found? Thanks so much for having me. Jessica was found in a really horrific way. She was soaked in fuel in her car on a rural country road. She had been basically set on fire, but she was still alive and left to stumble through a ditch. And she was spotted by a passing driver who called 911. And she was flown to the hospital about an hour away. But she had burned over 98% of her body. And the fire was so powerful that it turned her black car white.

And it just totally burned her. And her first responders said that they thought that Jessica and her car were burning for about 30 minutes. Oh, my stars. Just the thought of what this teen girl endured before she passed away. I spoke with her father, Ben, and he described racing to try to get to her in the hospital. You know, no one saw this coming the day Jessica Chambers was burned alive. Listen to her mom, Lisa, describing her last day on earth. Jessica had left home, went to the store, come back about 12, 1 o'clock. She got her pajama pants and piled up in a chair in the living room and went to sleep.

Sometime between 4.45 and 5.15, she got a phone call, a text, whichever one it was, I'm not sure. And then she went out the door and said she'd be back to clean up her room. She was going to get her something to eat. I called her and she said, I'll be home in a little while, Mama. Bye, I love you. I told her I loved her too. She said, see you in a little bit. And that's the last I heard from her. Jessica Chambers is a Mississippi cheerleader dead. Found by a passerby staggering along the road.

Some of the only parts of her unburned, the soles of her feet. Back to special guest joining me, Katie Baker from BuzzFeed, who is intimately familiar with the story. Could you tell me what you know about the crime itself? We don't have a definitive story yet since there was a mistrial, but I can tell you what the prosecutor argued happened in court, which is that they alleged that a recent local acquaintance of hers, Quentin Tellis, who was 27 to her 19, that they had been hanging out for a few weeks and that he had been bothering Jessica to have sex with him. And she had been repeatedly rebuffing his advances. And the prosecution argued at the trial last year that he had smothered her in the passenger seat of her car before the events that

led to her death. John Champion, the district attorney, said that he thought that Tellis had suffocated her and thought he had killed her and wanted to hide her body. So he set the car on fire. But again, since there was a mistrial, none of this, you know, he was not found guilty. Well, a mistrial, I don't believe is a not guilty, Katie. I believe it means that the jury hangs up. And it's my understanding that they're going forward with a second jury trial. Is that correct? That is correct.

And the next trial starts soon. What I mean is that he has not been found guilty and or innocent. It was a hung jury, like you said. So this is what was argued in court. But he gets another chance to prove his innocence. Now, what do we know about Jessica herself? Tell me about her. So when I first reported the story three years ago, I went to Cortland and what everyone told me is that by all accounts, Jessica was a normal Cortland teenager. She was rebellious, but not much more so than other kids who lived in the area. They said she was dramatic and feisty and that she was also a sweetheart. She was very bubbly, loyal and generous. And I remember someone said she was the kind of girl

who would give you her last dollar if you needed cheering up. So like many teenage girls, she, you know, she had graduated from high school with all A's and B's and she had a job. So I really think that she was your normal teenage girl. And that is partially why this crime was so shocking to the people in her small town. With me from BuzzFeed is investigative journalist Katie Baker. Katie, what can you tell me about how the investigation progressed? In the aftermath of Jessica's death, police questioned not only Jessica's former boyfriends and friends, but the most interesting clue that everybody was really obsessed with was that several first responders reported hearing Jessica say a name that sounded like Eric or Derek, obviously making people think that someone named Eric or Derek had killed her.

But ultimately, investigators could not find anybody named Eric or Derek that was a suspect. And in fact, they said in court that there was nobody named Eric or Derek that she had used her phone to talk to in the 30 days prior. Regarding when first responders came to the scene and asked her who had done this to her and they thought she said Eric, the person on trial's name is Tellis. Quentin Tellis. Quentin Tellis. Is it true, Katie, that the inside of her mouth and throat, her airway was also burned? Yes. When Jessica went to the hospital, the inside of her mouth was charred black.

It seems to me it would be very, very difficult for her to speak. Katie Baker, listen. We pulled up, and Jessica was laid right here. And I remember the heat coming off the truck. We started rendering medical aid for Jessica. And I remember looking down and she was laid on her side and they had this old army blanket covering her. The only thing she had on was a pair of panties. Just sitting there laying on that ground, that piece of skin. Every time she breathed, go in and out her nose. Ain't a damn thing you can do about it. Mm.

The burn spots were red. Looked like, in some places, maybe looked like somebody had smeared charcoal on her. She wasn't complaining about pain or nothing. Yeah, she was shaking. Somebody asked her was she cold or something. And I seemed like she nodded her head. You know, she wasn't real talkative. And then a firefighter, Brandy Davis,

was kind of back over toward her feet. And he said, well, hon, who done this to you? Kind of just looked up, turned her head just a little bit, and plain as day, she said, Eric did this. She didn't call no last name. You know, she said, Eric did this. We was all kind of stunned. I thought, whoever did this may still be out there.

Seeing her the way she was and then still alive, I don't wish this on my worst enemy. The ambulance had pulled up over here. They unloaded the stretcher and they loaded her up on it and that was the last I seen of her. Airing on Oxygen every Saturday is Unspeakable Crime, The Killing of Jessica Chambers. It premiered September 15, 7, 6 Central. New episodes every Saturday night on Oxygen, the new network for crime. The retrial is set to begin. To Katie Baker joining us from BuzzFeed.

Katie, why was there a mistrial the first time? I was there, and from my perspective, I walked in there thinking that the prosecution was going to make a really strong after first responder took the stand and said that before Jessica Chambers died she went out to burned her she said it was somebody named Eric or possibly Derek and so you heard some person after another say she said it was Eric Eric did this to me and the person on trial for killing her was named Quentin Telles, which doesn't sound like Eric or Derek. And while the prosecution did try its best to argue that, you know, she had had burns over 98 percent of her body, her throat was burned. She could have sounded like she said something else. I think hearing so many different people say, you know, she said Eric made the jury confused.

A man has been charged with the murder of a Mississippi teen cheerleader, Jessica Chambers. She was doused in gasoline and burned to death. The suspect, 27-year-old Quentin Tellis, is charged with setting fire to teen Jessica in a car in Cortland, Mississippi, and leaving her there to die December 7, 2014. Now earlier, Katie Baker from BuzzFeed reported that TELUS had been pestering Jessica for sex, but that she continued to say no. Katie, wasn't that proven in text messages from TELUS? Yes. And I thought that was very strong. I thought that it was clear from the text messages in court that the day that she died, he asked her repeatedly to come over and have sex. And Jessica said, no, she, his mom and sister were over and they would freak out if she

was there. And she said that she didn't want to come over. And so I thought that that part of the prosecution's argument was very strong. Again, I think that the reason there was a mistrial was because of the Eric or Derek problem. And I've heard that when the second trial starts soon, the defense is going to use that argument again, saying that the person who killed her has to be named Eric or Derek. Katie Baker, do you know the criminal history, if any, of Quentin Tellis? Yes, he had a lengthy criminal record. Katie Baker from BuzzFeed joining us.

You know, Quentin Tellis, no stranger to the inside of a jailhouse. 2010, he was sentenced to five years for burglary and being a felon fleeing authority. That means he had to be a felon before that charge. 2012, shortly after he got out of prison, back in trouble, charged with another burglary, sentenced to eight years. But not long after that, just two more years, he was being questioned about the murder of this cheerleader, Jessica Chambers. Quentin Tellis is actually facing murder charges in two separate states. Katie Baker, he had another murder charge pending in another jurisdiction. Yes, Quentin Tellis was charged with a Louisiana murder. In addition to Jessica Chambers, he was charged with the first degree

murder of an international student at the University of Louisiana in Monroe. Jessica was murdered in December of 2014. And in August 2014, so just a few months before, a ULM student was found stabbed to death in her apartment. And Tellis was found. Tellis did plead guilty to using credit cards that belonged to that student. So he was sentenced to five years for unauthorized use of a credit card because he was a habitual offender. His sentence was doubled to 10 years and he is also facing murder charges as well. Katie Baker from BuzzFeed. What can you tell me about rumors circulating regarding Jessica's murder? Jessica's murder caused international intrigue with people all over the world trying to solve

her case. And because local authorities took so long to solve it, and because there were only about 500 people in her tiny town, it seemed like everybody was a suspect and everybody from, you know, her family members and friends to her exes to just strangers that she had never met. Everyone was under suspicion. And the town really came to blows against each other with people accusing each other based on internet rumors that people from all over the world were bringing up. Katie, what role do phone records play in the investigation? Police were able to use phone records to prove that Quentin Tellis was the last person with Jessica. They were able to place them at the scene of the crime together. And they could also show that about an hour after Jessica

was set on fire, Quentin deleted all of the texts between them. So a few, you know, in both ways, they were both able to use cell phone data to place Jessica with Quentin. And they were also able to show that they were texting, they were spending time together, and that he deleted texts immediately after her murder. You know, it's really amazing, Katie Baker, joining me from BuzzFeed, the role that these phone records do play. Because at the very beginning, when Quentin Tellus was interviewed, he didn't mention that he had seen Jessica earlier that day around lunchtime, but then his story, according to prosecutors, changed saying he met

her in Batesville. The next story he said was he had ridden with her to Batesville and then he admitted that they were together at or near his house that night. Now, we know he has pled not guilty to capital murder. We know that. But what I find interesting about these phone records is cell phone and video data. They tell a completely different story than what he said. We learned that in analyzing the data, which is like putting together a puzzle, the timeline really changed because it shows Telus and Chambers together that evening, the evening of her death. And they were using multiple types of cell phone data, RTTs, which is range to tower.

That shows a general location. Another data shows where a user is when his or her phone is actually active. And that is when we learn. They could track Chambers and tell us that Saturday. Also, that data places him, according to the state, with her at the time of the murder. Isn't there video, Katie Baker from the Eminem gas station, showing Tellis visiting the store multiple times during the day, pulling in and out of his driveway as well, including one time, prosecutors say,

Tellis was driving his sister's car to a storage shed on his property where he tells the FBI he kept a five gallon gas can. Does the video show that? Yes and all of this evidence was presented in court and it will be interesting to see what happens during the next trial because again ultimately the jury members in the first trial were just really, really fixated on the Eric Derrick problem. But there is a lot of other evidence and cell phone data and video footage, like you said, that tells a strong story to say that Quentin Tellis is a suspect. Interesting about the cell phone data and Quentin Tellis, the defendant's story, that he did not see Jessica the afternoon or the night she died, which clearly was shown to be untrue.

According to the state, the defense has a different story, of course. In the end, Katie Baker, do you believe it will be a battle between the cell phone records and the EMTs based on what Chambers tried to say as she was dying? I do. I do think that it's going to be hard for the prosecution to get over that challenge of explaining to the jury why they're saying that someone named Quentin Tellis killed Jessica when she herself told so many people that Eric or Derek killed her and everybody who testified that she said that said that she said it very clearly. So I think that is a really big challenge and it will be interesting to see how they handle it this time. With me, BuzzFeed investigative reporter Katie Baker on the case of the cheerleader Jessica Chambers burned alive. See Unspeakable Crime, The Killing of Jessica Chambers. It premiered September 15, 7, 6 central, but new episodes

every Saturday on Oxygen, the new network for crime. Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.